The Apprentice
by Hecate Aiwe
Summary: On his 15th Birthday, Harry Potter recieves an unexpected letter which is to dramatically enhance his summer...
1. Summer

Okay – so I decided to embrace the genre of cheesy plot and write one of those fics that I usually laugh at but read anyways. I'm not entirely sure where the plot is going at the moment but it will definitely involve Harry, Sirius and Snape. I haven't decided what pairings (if any) are going to appear so prepare to be surprised! At the moment there is a low rating, but as I go on it is likely to get darker and push up the rating a bit.  
  
The Apprentice.  
  
Summary: Harry gets an unusual letter on his 15th birthday  
  
Spoilers: PS/SS, CoS, PoA, GoF  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own anything you recognise. I might own the bits you haven't seen before. If I have unwittingly stolen from other fics, tell me and I'll give them due credit. I have only borrowed the characters from JK and will put them back later after I've had my wicked way with them...  
  
Rating: PG-13  
  
Chapter 1: Summer  
  
In the typical way of British summers, the family of number 4, Privet Drive were confined to the house as gale-force winds shook the windows and rain came down in buckets. Harry Potter, who was confined to Dudley's second bedroom, stared out of the rain-streaked window. He was waiting for Hedwig to come back from last night's hunting, though he didn't expect that she would come during the storm. He was bored and lonely and almost managing to forget about the last task in the maze and Cedric's limp body in his arms...  
  
Harry settled back against the wall and picked up his forgotten Defence textbook. In the few short weeks that he had been 'home' he had read and re- read all of the books he owned on Defence, even the Lockhart ones (which were actually quite accurate if you only read the bits that were on topic – the first time he had forced himself to read the books, he had gone through them with a highlighter and could now easily find those parts that were useful without having to read too much of the author's self-obsessed ramblings). Now that Voldemort was back he needed to know all that he could.  
  
Having just re-opened his book and found the correct page, Harry heard a yell from downstairs. There was an angry shout of "BOY!" from his uncle which brought him running down the stairs and into the kitchen. The sight that greeted him was quite amusing and he had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing.  
  
His Aunt Petunia was standing on a stool in the corner of the room, cowering away from the owl that was perched on top of the stove and the spider that was sitting on the ceiling above her head. Vernon was staring purple-faced at the owl but refusing to move and Dudley was under the table with an entire apple pie, though strangely he was not eating it but splitting his attention between the door and his parents. Once Harry had distracted their attention away from the door, he took off up the stairs.  
  
Harry looked at the owl – he didn't recognise it but he approached it anyway. Attached to the owl's leg was a letter addressed to his Aunt, or rather to 'Petunia Evans' which Harry assumed was his Aunt's maiden name. Harry removed it and passed it to the still-cowering woman, dismissing the owl. Not waiting to see it leave, Harry turned to his Aunt who was staring blankly at the letter, hand shaking.  
  
"Open it, it won't bite." Harry advised her.  
  
"If you're so sure of that, you open it!" and she thrust the letter into his hands. Harry decided that he'd better be careful since he couldn't use his wand to check if the letter was safe, and lay it down on the table, opening it with the knife which was probably out to cut the pie that Dudley had stolen. Once he determined that no spells were going to fly out and there were no strange substances (he remembered too well the bubotuber pus incident) he pulled the letter out and handed it to his Aunt.  
  
As she read it, her eyes went wide and her expression went from dubious to shocked to angry to scared in the course of about three seconds. Harry wondered who could have sent the letter, but he didn't dare ask – he wanted his dinner!  
  
"Harry..." the boy did a double-take – had she just called him by his first name?  
  
"Yes, Aunt Petunia?"  
  
"You will go to your room and pack your belongings. Tomorrow morning, you will be collected by two people calling themselves Padfoot and Moony – ridiculous names if you ask me but you people are strange enough..."  
  
"They're not names, they're nicknames. That's my godfather and Professor Lupin!" Harry was suddenly very excited.  
  
Uncle Vernon sputtered with rage.  
  
"That is not important!" Snapped his aunt. "The letter says that the 'bumblebee' has decided that it would be safe for you to go with them – why do your people always insist on speaking in code?"  
  
Harry looked at her, not sure whether to answer. "The bumblebee must be Dumbledore. They will have written in code because Voldemort might have intercepted the owl – that's probably why it was addressed to you, too."  
  
At the mention of Voldemort, Petunia looked even more scared than before – she knew the name of the man that had killed her sister. She had thought that he was dead. Vernon saw this and shot a dirty look at Harry.  
  
Harry was waved away by his aunt and made no attempt to stay any longer. He bolted to his room as quickly as he could. He was leaving! He was going away with his godfather in the morning – on his Birthday! This was going to be the best birthday ever!  
  
Once he had calmed a little, he proceeded to pack as his aunt had instructed. He put everything in his trunk barring the book that he was still reading. Determined to make the afternoon pass more quickly, he opened his book and began to read...  
  
A/n: Hoped you like it! Sorry its not too long – I will update as soon as I can. Please review! 


	2. The Letter

Much Thanks to everyone who reviewed.  
  
Lennon Vandross: I appreciate you pointing that out, but according to my Oxford English Dictionary both the –ize and –ise endings are acceptable.  
  
The Apprentice.  
  
Summary: Harry gets an unusual letter on his 15th birthday  
  
Spoilers: PS/SS, CoS, PoA, GoF  
  
Disclaimer: I own nothing except the computer I typed this on and the mind that conceived the plot.  
  
Rating: PG-13  
  
Chapter Two: The Letter  
  
It was not until the light faded almost completely from the room that he realised how long he had been reading. It was now gone eight – he wondered whether the Dursleys had eaten without him again, but decided against it, almost certain that he would have at least smelt the food and realising that Dudley would have been talking extra loud about how wonderful the meal was.  
  
In the last school year, Dudley had been caught several times stealing from the school kitchens. Because the staff at Smeltings had by this point realised that whatever crime he committed would be ignored by his parents (Petunia's reaction to the first four infractions in the kitchens had been 'he's a growing boy, after all!') the fifth time he had been caught, they decided on a punishment without telling his parents. He was banned from contacting his parents for a month (the only times he ever did was to whine about being given detention for 'accidentally' hitting his class mates). For that month, he was made to eat at the 'special foods' table for the boys whose diets had to be monitored (those with food allergies etc.) and limited to one helping of meat and vegetables – no chips or fatty foods allowed.  
  
The sixth time he was caught in the kitchen, his punishment was extended to a term. The seventh, he was 'volunteered' to train with the rugby team every evening for an hour and a half. Two days into this new part of his punishment he hadn't the energy to sneak into the kitchens. By the time Christmas came, he had lost two stone and was almost able to be called 'fit'. His mother thought that he was looking wonderful and actually asked that the school continue to allow him to train with the rugby squad, but insisted that meal restrictions were no longer necessary. Regardless, by the summer Dudley was decidedly thinner than before (though still classified as obese) and his mother insisted on 'putting some meat on his bones' over the summer. Thus, meals were as big as ever and Harry was usually allowed to eat, though his portions were as meagre as ever.  
  
Harry was shocked from his wonderings when Dudley thundered up the stairs. To the utter shock and amazement of the boy-who-lived, his cousin knocked politely on the door, popped his head around and announced dinner was ready before stomping back to the kitchen. It was almost a full minute later that Harry managed to shock himself into motion and hurried after him.  
  
Dinner that night was a surreal occasion. Aunt Petunia questioned Dudley about the apple pie she'd baked for him that morning and left to cool on the kitchen table. "... I thought we could have some for dessert, is there any left?"  
  
Dudley's only answer had been a blush and a murmur of "it's all broken".  
  
Dinner continued in relative silence, and for some reason that Harry couldn't fathom, he was treated like an equal. Like he was part of a family.  
  
Once the meal was over, Harry retreated to his bedroom and his books. He could only hope that there was something in the letter that Sirius had written his aunt that had encouraged the events of dinner. Otherwise, he would have to question his relatives' sanity.  
  
***  
  
The numbers of the clock radio beside Harry's bed burned an eerie neon green in the darkness. It had taken nearly a full month for him to accustom himself to the glow so like and yet unlike to the most dreaded spell know to wizard kind, as a silver medallion shining as it is positioned to catch the first rays of the morning sun is like and yet unlike to the blade of a sword glittering with a deadly fury in the mournful light that precedes a bloody battle. Now, on the eve of his fifteenth birthday, he was able to watch as the numbers changed, in that painfully slowed way that happens when one watches the time passing, from 11:56 to 11:57, 58, 59...  
  
He didn't know why he was waiting for his birthday tonight – it would only make him more tired tomorrow, when his godfather would finally come for him. But he couldn't help it. It had become tradition for him to wait through the hours until he could finally look at himself and whisper "Happy Birthday". Today he was not expecting owls. He was sure that his friends had been warned that they would see him soon. He waited anyway, hunched up under his thin duvet squinting in the darkness at the clock as it finally flipped over and read 12:00.  
  
As Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, settled down into his mattress, comforted with the knowledge that he was now fifteen, a dark shadow flew through the sky.  
  
It continued to fly until it crashed into said boy's bedroom window and started the almost-asleep boy from his bed. Recognising instantly the sounds of an owl, Harry flicked the lamp beside his bed on and opened the window, ushering the bird in.  
  
The owl was not one that Harry recognised. It carried a letter held in a deep red envelope with an emerald green border which had his name inscribed on the front in an elegant script that he had never seen before. Nervously, he broke the seal and pulled out a slightly age-yellowed parchment. The first words made him drop the parchment in shock, and they stared up at him from the bedroom floor:  
  
My Dear Son... 


	3. The Apprenticeship

Am sooooooooo sorry about the late update – I have A-levels in a couple of weeks and am pretty much snowed under.  
  
Much Thanks to everyone who reviewed.  
  
The Apprentice.  
  
Summary: Harry gets an unusual letter on his 15th birthday  
  
Spoilers: PS/SS, CoS, PoA, GoF  
  
Disclaimer: I own nothing except the computer I typed this on and the mind that conceived the plot.  
  
Rating: PG-13  
  
Chapter Three: The Apprenticeship  
  
_My Dear Son, _

_I am writing this now as you sleep in my lap, a beautiful boy of not quite one. _

_There is a reason that I am writing now and not in fourteen years time when you shall receive this and that is, for the most, because of the uncertainties of war. It is also because of my sometimes-poor memory and the likelihood that by now the marauders will probably be little more than myth (or should I say legend?). _

_We marauders had the first of (hopefully) many PISUP (**P**ost-Hogwarts **I**nventiture **S**uitable **U**se **P**ranking) meetings, in which the lack of suitable Hogwarts pranksters was discussed. We then came up with this plan – at the age of 15, we would invite all of our children to be apprenticed to a Mgen1 (Marauder generation 1) and will thus create a Mgen2! We thought it such a spectacular idea that we closed the meeting for an evening at the pub, which I left early for fear of castration – your mother is one scary flower when she wants to be, as I am sure you have discovered by now! _

_ Anyhow, this is your pre-sent invitation to be the first of the Mgen2. Hopefully, there will be others not far away, but you are the first – be proud! As your father, I would love to be you mentor, but I fear castration were your mother to discover the fact (she is not impressed that I would dream of ever not being the perfect role-model – I think her plans are doomed to failure the moment you can understand your Uncle Paddy's stories about our school days, but nevertheless...) _

_Instead, I will let you choose according to the following recommendation: _

_1. Your Uncle Paddy, a.k.a. Padfoot, Sirius, Snuffles, 'Bloody Dog!' and Mutt. My personal favourite for you, he is the most daring (stupid?) in the art of prank-pulling. There is much he can teach you and much that you must learn. _

_2. Your Uncle Moony, a.k.a. Remus. A lot more sensible than the aforementioned Mutt, you will realise that it is probably not the best option as he is far too _nice_ and _sensible_ to be a truly excellent prankster (a better lookout you could never find). Also, he can't teach you certain things which others of us learned... _

_3. Peter, a.k.a. Wormtail, Worms, Ratty and Rat. I don't understand why he refuses his honorary Uncleness, but theregoes. Please try and avoid this pairing – I fear that it will be you teaching him!  
  
I really cannot afford the time to expound on this – your mother has just come out of the shower and will surely catch me if I continue.  
  
Be safe, choose wisely, All my love to the best of sons (I'm sure I won't be saying that by the time you read this, but it is true)  
  
Your Father,  
Prongs_  
  
Harry caught a choked breath as he gripped the letter painfully in his left hand, the right still holding the torch though it was now pointing limply at the ceiling. His father had written him a letter. A letter inviting him to a prankster's apprenticeship with Sirius... Uncle Paddy...  
  
The tears rolled unhindered down his cheeks as he read his letter again and again, eventually falling into black forgetfulness as the hours rolled by.  
  
A/N: Profuse apologies for the shortness – as I said, exams looming and if I wait until this chapter is a decent length, you'll be waiting months for the cliffhanger to end. I will try to update ASAP, but can promise nothing except that I am free as of July and will write lots then, hopefully! For now, lots of reviews, please! Tell me what you like/dislike – I am open to all constructive criticism and flames are used to keep my tea warm as I write. And I did warn you about the cheesiness of the plot...


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